alison

At 1:00pm On 11/9/16 I attended EPIC Online Student and Faculty Preparedness by Alison Consol and Jessica Hatcher at the 2016 USCA NDLW Virtual Conference.

EPIC Online Student and Faculty Preparedness

To remove learning barriers and better support online student learning, persistence and success, Wake Tech has launched a QEP based on best practices in eLearning called EPIC. A collaborative effort by faculty and staff to develop and implement eLearning Standards, an online student orientation, and a faculty certification program. I enjoyed the beginning of this program, but unfortunately I was not able to catch the entire show, and that was a shame.

Change is the new norm. Our major mantra will become: access, success, quality. We, as faculty, make those three things happen, and happen well for our community.

DSS SERVICES

DSS for students. We make the education accessible to students with disabilities. These three are the what they do. we hope to assure that students with disabilities should be able t do what non-disabled students do. Disabled students should be able to access books on the bus, 2am study sessions just the same as a non-disabled student.

documentation will be received from DSS Students, and those will be interpreted and forwarded to you.

Testing time is important. Extended testing time holds our DSS students to the same standards within the framework of the class. IDEA laws in high school are different than those in the college curriculum. We are really interested in access. We cannot modify the curriculum just based on their DSS Status. Assistance may be given in one form or another, although these things are not

Don’t hesitate to reach out ot students, but also don’t be offended if you are contacted by DSS and requested to have full access to the course materials. Department heads may be notified to discuss accommodations.

NC apprenticeship program has 7 sponsors uniting industry and program needs.

Business & Public Services Technologies: New staff members hired. 3 faculty members moved to administrative department head status. 3 new associate degree programs have been opened. We’ve had our first graduate from our business analytics dept $2.9million grant.

Partnership with NETAPP, success on hiring. Netapp has offered WBL for students, ALL STUDENTS. Excellent partnership is CISCO systems has hired more students through WBL than we can count over the years. This year, RED HAT is hiring our students through WBL. We’ll be pushing industry relationships in new RTP Campus.

In 2017 we’ll be ffering many classes at RTP

oHealth Science: 6 new faculty hired. New asistant to the dean, new associate dean, interrim department head, new department heads. over 4,000 registered students, and 711 are completely new this semester. Several departments are growing their departments, but passing rates at this time is 99%. We feel it is due to mentoring and dedicated advising. Searchtag will be phased out at the end of the year due to student success with employment or lack thereof- the program did not work.

95% of health science classes are accredited through discipline. Nursing program has been recently reaccrivdited, med assist, ems will also be re-accrediting this year.

CONCLUSION

100% challenge. $600,000 in Perkins grant funding. We want to ramp up advising skills. We will hire and embed professional advisors to train you. Know your students.

We want you to get certified and accredited. If there is a certification in your field, we want you to have it. We want to have the most skilled faculty on the planet. She challenges us t learn those certifications. If there aren’t any for us in the discipline, find something and share.

Foundation giving. Remember that money can circle back t you. That money can be used for things in which the department cannot use. Specify that the department should receive that funding. earmark that money back to your department/division. Host a scholarship or grant, its easier than you think.

New 954 form (missed or cancelled from) is going away. New instructions will cover this change and r materials.

Big initiatives are here. We need t advise our students of a one-way track to success. We are always looking for new students to complete their success. Create pathways to success for your students so that they can build on success and be job-ready as soon as humanly possible.

Competency-based education.we want to help NC Community College create the framework for competency-based education. how fast will they move, how will they pay, when will they graduate, what will accreditors say, how will financial aid take this? CBEN website for more.

Benchmarking should be targeted to student success. we are measured on completion. we are not measured on job or college acquire. Benchmark new and innovative ways t benchmark student success.

We are looking into automatically awarding certificates and degrees upon completion. However, this may trigger loan payback through some organizations. We are looking into this. We already collect courses from students who transfer to 4-year schools, and then award Associate degrees for work completed at those levels.

Ask your students to ask for certificates early and often. Ask them NOT to apply for their certification until they have completed them, and ensure that students have changed/declared their major on the way to completing the declaration.

On April 2nd, 2015 at Wake Tech’s North Campus, Alison Consol and Cindy Foster addressed the GRD, WEB and SGD department faculty at the Wake Tech Faculty Professional Development Conference from 10:00am until noon

Advising 102

This was a great method of determining the best ways to encourage students to sign up for certifications, diplomas, and our associate degrees. The emphasis here was on completions, math courses which could be accepted, and updates to evaluate course progressions, and the ease of helping students to complete their diploma programs by helping them to register for graduation.

In the second half of the department meeting, we focused on EPIC preparedness. This was equal parts course preparedness, menu building, and standards. This concluded with a longer, more team-oriented approach entitled “On The Border”.

The only strange part of this encounter was that a faculty member from chemistry signed up for our department meeting. That guy had no idea what we were talking about, and frankly didn’t really care about our policies. So, that was a waste of his time, and he chose to stay until the end. I’d do this again every semester.

Alison Consol is the head of both the Advertising and Graphic Design department, and Web Design Department at Wake Tech Community College.
Cindy Foster is the head of the Simulation and Video Game Development department at Wake Tech Community College

Quality Matters is a national benchmark for online courses. The presenters took courses from Quality Matters to be certified as peer reviewers of online classes using QM Basic.

Development of the Rubric

Using the research and structure of other rubrics to create a standardized rubric. This has been amended 9 times based on feedback from experienced online faculty. This consistency is helpful for students as well as teachers.

The purpose of this is to establish a college0-wide quality standard for online classes and a tool for course evaluation. To achieve a e-learning qualtiy seal from wake tech for your online course, all essential standards and 90% of recommended standards must be met. This may be easier for teachers than receiving the training.

EPIC certification is roughly 30 hours, but many teachers have already taken. You might be able to take only 2/3rds of the training or you might put a course on the chopping block for meeting the standards of the course. This tool can also be used to gain insight into teacher needs and recommended remediation. Some courses may benefit from looking at the current rubric and adjusting their courses accordingly. Feedback will be heavily important in the establishment of success. Large courses with high enrollment will begin, and many will begin in Spring 2015.

if you’re really interested, look at the materials at epic.waketech.edu

Categories

course overview and introduction

intro to course?

how get started

expectations

syllabus include course materials

college and course policies

faculty bio and contact info

student support

campus / course resources (should be present and in development)

course nav and tech

nav is logical, clear, consistent, uncomplicated and efficient

cannot access materials

course free of errors typo grammar broken links

mesurement and assessment strategies

lesson/week/unit expectations are clearly stated with due dates

assessments are suitable for an online class and utilized to measure SLOs

rubrics are provided for all substantive graded assignments

rubrics are easy to understand

rubrics are available to students

can be excel or blackboard-integrated rubrics

rubrics are clearly explained, or given adequate feedback

gradebook is maintained in blackboard: weighted grades are incredibly important

Student Learning outcomes

SLOs listed at course and module/unit.week

accurate and clearly stated and measurable

slo written for a student perspective and suitable for course level

instructional materials

materials are sufficiently comprehensive to achieve SLOs for the course

copyright is adhered to

materials is current

Interaction and Engagement

Online course fosters meaningful interaction between students and faculty

faculty presence is evident in course

use of interactive tools

ADA Compliance

course meets accessibility standards

Going over a 16,10,8-week courses isn’t a fast process. It will take time.Will a failure indicate the need for education? minor adjustments may be a pass with adjustments, large sections will include the optional recommendation for remediation. Most courses should have (would certainly benefit from) departmental review and oversite before submitted.

Certified online instructor Program

All teachers teaching online courses will need to be certified by 2017.

Certification by Review

instructors submit past courses for review

coi-review/rubric team is developed.

Courses will be reviewed by a team of 3 expereienced online faculty acting as peer reviewer.